Address—Robert Boulard
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Let's sing together #29 There are many little hymns in this book that were written by our beloved brother JG Deck, and they're of a worthwhile quality. And the sentiments of this little hymn really bring us into the portion that we had before us this morning and somewhat of what I'd like to speak of this afternoon, so #29.
Someone maybe started for us.
I'm trying to do.
Oh my God, Savior, Son of God.
Will hide his breaking without land crying love number.
Providing the general plans down and shrimp who is the story I'm praying by giving it all to you, Lord grow Lord glory, glory.
Anything for all of the same.
And also by the Father and the Father.
Our frozen power and collapse came out of the long run. I heard that. I thought I'd like to get in the ground.
Where the Sun had reckoned shelter our Mercury in my life.
Blood and.
Life.
Of all dangerously hard driven.
And all of them turned out in the sun.
Thy never. First of all, God blessed me to share.
My birthday, Lord, is Lord.
Our hearts, our thumb and Grange. I'm not a strange.
By strengthen God in the extreme games all over again.
Smile and smile for them.
I am considering a day and a lot of all your breathing for college. The tough life rise shall be reached 7 years by making full and all the lands, all the highway of the views begin to begin to end.
Oh great, my daughter yelled my grandmother. See there anything? Is there anything else?
Whatever it has to come by.
And everything. So I love grill and see.
Let's ask the Lord's blessing on our meeting.
Our loving God, our Father, we thank thee for Thy love, we thank Thee for Thy purpose of love and how it was displayed in the work of Thy Son, and that Thou hast glorified Thy Son, raised him from among the dead, seated him at thy right hand, and greatest glory and majesty, and more than this.
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Thou has said all things in the heavens and the earth under his feet.
And thou said him to be head over all things to the Church, which is his body. And so we thank thee.
Are gone for such a wise plan for the power.
The might to accomplish it and the work is just about done.
My church is just about complete blessed Savior. And so we just ask thee for grace this afternoon, that as we open up thy precious word, that each one of us might receive a little portion from thyself and that we might value something more of the person and the work of our blessed Savior. So we just ask thee for thy blessing, clarity of thought, and that thou it's in my goodness, bless us. So we ask it and give thanks now in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like to read just to open up in Ephesians chapter one again, just a couple of verses that were alluded to but weren't read.
Ephesians chapter one weren't commented on specifically, they were read this morning.
The Fusion's One, verse 22 and 23.
Ephesians one and verse 22 It says, And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head.
Over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him.
That filleth All in all.
And so, you know, the Lord is forming his church today. I'd like to just look a little bit at the church, and I've had the question ask me several times, many times over the last few months, not only in Brazil, but here in North America. What is the church? How is it? What's the difference between the church and the assembly?
What is God doing in connection with the Church?
And umm, we can understand this question coming from those that are saved.
Out of another denomination, perhaps saved out of Roman Catholicism.
And everything that they've ever learned about the church, you might say, is wrong, and they don't know anymore.
And I would just suggest this. I hope you don't mind that I take it up in a very simple way.
But we need to be clear as to what God is doing and that the church is his vessel of testimony in this world.
And he is working, and Christ is the head of the Church, which is his body.
And you know, you and I as a part of the Church of God, in that future day, we're going to be seen as the fullness or the completeness of Christ in that scene. Christ would not be complete in heaven as it were, without His body, the church. And you and I, that no Christ as Savior were made a part of that church. Let's just look at Matthew 16, verse 16.
To get.
I'd like to look at just a few basic points.
Matthew 16, verse 16.
This is the first point that we want to make that is that.
The church is being built presently. It was not in existence when the Lord Jesus was in this world.
It was something future that he spoke of that he was going to build and he is currently building it.
And so here it says that Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona.
For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.
Or my assembly and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged to his disciples, that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. And so the Lord Jesus was presented as the Messiah of Israel. He was their true king. And in the Gospel of Matthew we.
So that he was rejected as that king. In all of the Gospels he's presented as rejected, but in Matthew's Gospel, he's presented as a true king of Israel and he's rejected as that king. And then he says in verse 20, he says, don't tell them anymore that I'm the king. Now he's going to do a new work. He's going to do something else. He's going to form his church. Instead of having the children of Israel or the Jews as his testimony in this world, he was going to take up something that was entirely.
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Knew, and he didn't tell them. In the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus was revealing something entirely new.
He was going to begin a new work and it was going to be his church.
His assembly and it's a wonderful thing for us to recognize that what God is doing in this world.
Is building something? The Lord Jesus is building his church. It's for himself.
And so he's the one, he's the source, and he's the builder.
And it's wonderful to recognize the sovereignty of God in connection with building his church. Now, the second point that I'd like to make is in Ephesians in Matthew chapter 18, You know, and you probably know and have heard before that Matthew is the only gospel in which the church is mentioned.
And so the Jews during the Tribulation period, perhaps the beginning of sorrows and into the Great Tribulation, will begin to read.
Some of the New Testament scriptures, they'll read the book of the Gospel of Matthew and they'll begin to discover.
That God was working in the day of grace and that He was forming a church for himself.
And that the Church is no longer on earth, but that is in heaven. That it was a heavenly Organism.
And it didn't belong to this earth. They're going to discover this, and they're going to discover that they crucified their Messiah, but that he's going to take up with them again. So they're going to read this and I believe they'll start to understand what he was doing in the day of grace. So Matthew chapter 18, let's just for the sake of time, just read.
Verse 17 If he neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be as unto thee.
As an heathen man in a public. And verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if any, if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven. For where two or three?
Are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them and then just hold your place there. And I'd like to read in Ephesians chapter 5.
Where we read at prayer meeting last night, Ephesians chapter 5.
And, umm, let's read just part way through verse 23.
Christ is the head of the church or the head of the assembly, and He is the Savior of the body.
Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wise be subject unto their own husbands, and everything. Husbands, love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to Himself. A glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish, so ought men to love their.
And then in verse 32.
Well, let's read verse 31 for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
So we find in umm Matthew chapter 18, we might say a definition of the church. So somebody might ask what is the church? What is the assembly? And I would just say this, Mr. Darby translates in his translation almost exclusively assembly, not church. It's the same word really, and it means a company of those that are called out ones.
So you and I have been called out by grace to be a part of the Church of God, called out from among the Jews and Gentiles.
To be a testimony for him in this scene and so in verse 20.
Of Matthew chapter 18, he says for where two or three are gathered.
Together in my name, or unto my name, there am I, in the midst of them. Any Speaking of the church there, the assembly. I would just say that there are two aspects to the church, and that is that one aspect is the church universally. We just read that in Ephesians chapter 5. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.
So everyone that is a born again believer, one that is not only born again, but sealed with the Spirit of God.
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Is a part of that church. You do not become a part of the church by being baptized.
You do not become a part of the church by signing a church role.
On some church denominational register.
You become a member of the Church of God, the sovereign act of God.
When he seals the work in your soul, when you trust Christ, the finished work of Christ, you say Christ died for me.
I accept Christ as my Savior. He died on the cross, the Son of God who loved me.
And gave himself for me. When you can say that you become a part of the Church of God, not your entrance really into that Organism, that living Organism. So we have the universal Church. But then there's a, you might say, the local aspect of the church. And it is evident here in the city of Englewood, there is a little assembly gathered to the Lord's name.
On divine ground and where the Lord is in the midst.
And so he says here in Matthew's Gospel chapter 1020.
18 I'm sorry, verse 20 for where two or three, even a company of two.
Or three are gathered together, not gather themselves together.
But those that are gathered by the Spirit of God.
They are gathered in my name or unto My name together.
There am I in the midst of them.
You know there's been mischief among the Saints of God in connection with the false translation of this verse.
And oftentimes I've had it quoted to me myself in different venues, you might say, and people that say wherever two or three gather themselves together, there's the Lord in the midst, you know, He is with you and I individually, he says, lo, I am with you always, even under the end of the age, but he is.
With the Saints individually, but he delights to be among his people.
In a collective sense when they're gathered together by his Spirit. And so this verse doesn't speak of a voluntary group of Christians that gather themselves together. It speaks of those that are gathered by the Spirit of God and are brought together from a working of the Spirit outside of themselves. Because we spoke of the sovereignty of God this morning, I would just say this.
That you and I who are truly gathered to the Lord's name by faith, we say it, we don't say it by pride. We don't have to say those things. And consider that it's prideful to say that we're gathered to the Lord's name, but by faith.
Upon the word of God, we can say that we trust that we're gathered to the Lord's name.
But we are gathered, it's on the it's because of the sovereignty of God. You and I are saved by the grace of God and by the sovereignty of God. None of us would ever be saved apart from the sovereignty of God. None of us.
It was an act of God to save your soul. He worked individually with you to bring you to the knowledge of the truth and to have your sins forgiven. And so it is in connection with the truth of God. It's a sovereignty of God that anyone of us has a desire to read the Word of God and to study the Word of God and to walk in the truth.
And then it's a sovereignty of God if he exposes us to the teaching of the truth of what it is to be gathered to the Lord's name.
And we take our place at the Lord's table. It's the sovereignty of God. It's all his work, brethren. And then to be kept by the power of God through faith. What's a wonderful thing to be kept by the power of God? And I would just say this as we live in the days just before we hear the voice of the Lord calling us home. I'd re echo the words of dear brother Gordon Hale.
He used to say this to us many times. He'd say to us as young people, it's a good thing to have a good beginning.
It's a good thing to have a good beginning and the things of God to be brought up in the assembly.
To read the word of God, to become, to come to an understanding of the truth of God. But it's a better thing to have a good ending.
Make sure you have a good ending. Make sure that you follow through.
And buy the truth for yourself and walk in the truth for yourself, and then be found at the end of life.
As it were, and perhaps at the time of the coming of the Lord going on in the truth.
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So we have in Matthew's Gospel chapter 16, we have the builder of the church. It's the Lord Jesus.
And then we have the definition of the church really given to us in.
Matthew 18 and verse 20 and it's where two or three are gathered.
In a local sense, they're gathered by the Spirit of God and only take the name of the Lord Jesus.
And then they find him in the midst.
Well, let's look at.
Acts Chapter 11.
Want to just touch on this passage of scripture because you might say.
Wonder how an assembly is established and how it is nourished by the Lord.
Because we have in Ephesians chapter 5 the work that the Lord Jesus is doing presently in the church.
And during the church period, he is, it says.
Husbands, love your wives as Christ gave himself for it. And then it says that he's going to present it or he cleanses it. He's sanctified and he's cleansing it with the washing of water by the Word, and then in the future he's going to present it to himself. There's three aspects here. In the past, Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
Not wonderful to think that he loved you and he gave himself for you, but he gave himself for the church.
Which is his body. He loved that church and he gave himself for it.
In the present time, he is sanctifying it and cleansing it.
He set it apart for himself and he's cleansing it with the washing of water by the word and then in the future.
By the grace of God, we have written in the Holy Canon of Scripture.
That he's going to present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
And so those three things in the past, he gave himself for it in the presence. He's cleansing it with the washing of water by the word, and in the future he's going to present it to himself. But in this aspect of which I want to speak of here in Chapter 11 is the work in which he is currently doing and raising up little individual testimonies, local testimonies to the truth that there is one body.
And how he does it, the principles of it. And we might read from verse 19.
Acts Chapter 11 and verse 19. Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as finesse.
And Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word.
To none, but unto the Jews only, and some of them.
We're men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them.
And a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord then.
Tidings of these things came under the years of the Church, which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas.
That he should go as far as Antioch, who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad.
And exhorted the mall, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, For he was a Goodman, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.
And much people was added under the Lord.
Then departed Barnabas Sitarsis for as they seek Saul.
And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch, And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves.
With the church and taught much people and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
And in these days came profits from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agavis.
And signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world.
Which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar, then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief under the brethren which dwelt in Judea.
Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. And we might just turn to a companion passage in the Epistle to Ephesians, chapter 4.
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Ephesians chapter 4. This also was read at the prayer meeting last night.
Let's read from verse 7. Unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts on demand.
Now that he ascended, what is that? What is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors, and teaching teachers for the perfecting of the Saints.
For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith.
And of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, or a full grown man.
Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Well, we notice here that there was a purpose that these gifts were given.
There were gifts given. The apostles are mentioned first. Why are the apostles mentioned in connection with the church period? Why are they mentioned first?
A little picture is given to us in the book of Joshua.
That those elders that outlived Joshua, they were used of God to stem the tide of evil.
And the enemies to engage the enemy that was, seek to take the children of Israel, and to displace them in that land. And so the apostles were specially prepared of God, raised up of God to face the enemy, and to oppose the evil, and to minister the truth. An example of this is John the Apostle in connection with the epistles. First, second and third John. He was used of God in a special way to minister the truth and to oppose.
The work of the enemy to sully the name of Christ, and the glory of the person, and the deity of Christ. And so he gave those apostles, and then he gave others that, as it says here in this passage in Ephesians chapter 4. But we haven't told out in action in Acts Chapter 11. And it speaks of those that were scattered abroad, and there were evangelists among them.
It says preaching the word.
And you know when the evangelist preaches the word, there's going to be blessing.
If it's done in the power of the Spirit, the Word is preached. My word shall not return unto me void. It shall accomplish that whereunto it is sent. And so these dear men, they went out, and they were preaching the word to none but the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake under the Grecians. These were actual Greeks preaching the Lord Jesus, and so souls were saved.
They were saved. They were added to the church.
They were sealed by the Spirit. They were quickened. They could hear the voice of the Lord.
And then they were sealed by the Spirit. They were added to the church. You know what's interesting? The language that's used. I'd like to just turn to Acts chapter 2 because it's the Lord that adds to the church. You and I don't add to the church. It's the Lord that does. Let's just read the last verse of Acts chapter 2. They were praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church or to the assembly daily, such as should.
Be saved, and so the Lord added, and so the evangelist as he does his work.
One is often said that the evangelist does his work and his work is outside the assembly.
His work is largely outside the assembly. Now, he may be given the liberty to preach the gospel of the grace of God in the assembly meeting room, in the hall that the Saints meet in. And he may have hobby classes or Sunday school works and that sort of thing. Those are not assembly meetings. And he's working with those that are outside the assembly, and then he directs them to the assembly as a result of his work. You know, dear brother Mario in.
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Brazil is an evangelist and he has this three minute gospel on YouTube. That's his work in his gospel work for the Lord and the Lord has blessed that work and when he gets something like 40 inquiries a day as to from different individuals as a result of that gospel work and his other website.
And he directs those that are saved by the grace of God.
And come into some knowledge of the truth. He directs them to the assembly. He tells them, they they call and they say, or they e-mail them and text them. They say, I just got saved. I've left the Roman Catholic Church. I've taken Christ as my savior. What do I do now? I can't go back to the Roman Catholic Church. He says it's normal to be gathered to the Lord's name and to be gathered by the Spirit of God.
And to come to meet with the Lord in the midst where the Lord.
Has his people and so these people they say well where is this place and so he.
Puts them in contact with brethren in the different cities that there are assemblies. And so that's when assembly, that's what an evangelist does. He preaches the Word. And I need to stress this is when you preach the gospel, preach facts.
Preach the truth. Preach the word.
I was in a meeting room not too long ago working.
We're going to fixing some doors in the meeting room and as I was working on this door I I noticed the shadow of something cross.
The light that I was working in and so I turned around and there was a car parked at the front door.
And there was a lady sitting in that car with a man. And so I went out to the car and I asked them if I could help them. And the lady said to me, she said.
I I'm looking for a church. I'm looking.
I want to have.
Assurance of salvation. I want to know my sins are forgiven. I'm afraid of meeting God as a judge.
She said. I've taken Christ as my savior. I've asked them to wash my sins away, but I've gone to every mega church in this.
In this city, I've gone to every church and she says I still don't have assurance.
That I'm not going to face God as a judge. I've joined the Roman Catholic Church. I still don't have peace.
Brethren.
But pulled the Bible off the shelf in that meeting room and took my highlighter and sat down with that sister and the Lord and.
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
Past, present and future.
We highlighted and put bookmarks in and umm, she went away.
She came back a little bit later. She I had said something about the judgment seat of Christ and she wanted to know about the judgment seat of Christ. Well, I'll pull the booklet out of my bins and gave her a booklet and had a word of prayer with her and said, you know, it's not your feelings.
That are going to give you peace. It's the Word of God. Lay your hopes upon the finished work of Christ and the word of God.
And I gave her some of these verses to memorize and to say, just lay your heart.
Lay your hopes on your security, your internal security on those verses, the evangelist has the privilege.
Of preaching Christ, and preaching the Word, and preaching facts.
That Christ died, the work is finished, it's complete. And so that's what took place in this place in Antioch, says the Lord. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. So the Lord added to the church individuals. And then we have that in verse 22. The tidings of these things came under the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem. There was an assembly in Jerusalem.
There was.
A local expression.
Of the church meeting in that place, Christians gathered to the Lord's name.
Not connected with Judaism. Not connected with any of the other systems of men.
And so they heard of that work that was going on in Antioch, and they sent Barnabas.
Tells us about Barnabas. He had seen the grace of God and was glad he exhorted the mall.
That with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. You know Barnabas was a pastor. He was a shepherd.
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You'll notice that this is very orderly in Acts Chapter 11. First we have the evangelist, then we have the pastor, the shepherd.
Then we have the teacher Paul. He wasn't the apostle Paul he saw right here.
And then we have the prophet Agabus. We have all four, and the key gifts that God has given to the church that the church might.
Be built up and might be edified, we might say that's just another word of.
To express that term built up.
But it's very orderly. They leave these dear ones labored together. Isn't it wonderful to labor together in this way? The evangelists with the pastor and shepherd. And this pastor and shepherd saw the work and he exhorted, encouraged the Saints to go on. And then it says there was a teacher. And Barnabas, you know, he knew his limitations.
It's a good thing to know your limitations and what you don't know.
And I used to have when we were in business a little.
Umm, job. Not a job description, but a interview list and a couple of the questions I've already mentioned here in these meetings, prayer meeting, I think the other night. But one of the questions I used to ask those that came at an interview was what are your strengths? What do you really, what are you really good at?
And so they would give me a little bit of a list of the things that they thought they were really qualified to do in the work.
And then I would ask them the second question, a companion question. What are you not good at?
What should I not ask you to do?
And I got all kinds of wild answers for this question. Some people said, I, you know, I know it all. I, I don't, I don't have any weaknesses. Well, I said to them, I would say to these people, you know, I know what my weaknesses are. I'm not an accountant. And I hire good accountants because I need to have a good accountant. But, you know, Barnabas wasn't selfish. He was a pastor. He wanted the good of the Saints of God, and he knew.
He could not help them beyond a certain way, at a certain distance, you might say in spiritual things.
And he knew about Saul and he wanted, he knew that Saul was a teacher. And he went, he walked perhaps something like 150 miles. I think as the crow flies, it's like about 115 miles. Maybe somebody knows what the distances are. But he went a long way to get a teacher.
And Paul was a teacher and there was fruit as a result of it. It says they assembled themselves with the church or the assembly there.
It speaks of believers being saved first.
They quicken sealed with the Spirit individually, and then it speaks of an assembly being formed in that place in fellowship with the assembly in Jerusalem. And it says that Paul or Saul came down and he taught much people and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch, you know, really true ministry.
True ministry, Christ exalting ministry will make us more like Christ.
Saul's ministry was heavenly. It made the Saints more like Christ.
They were first called Christians there in Antioch, the Gentile city. They weren't called Christians in Jerusalem. First, Noah was an in Gentile city, the place that they had come out of idolatry and everything else associated with it. They were called Christians, Christ's ones. And then it speaks of the prophets that came down from Jerusalem. I just like to turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 14. We'll read what a prophet does.
His work.
In verse 3.
First Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 3.
But he that prophecy speaketh unto men to edification.
And exhortation. And comfort.
And so edification is the building up.
And so the building up of the mine, perhaps our intelligence or our knowledge in connection with scriptural things. So prophet has a knowledge of the scriptures and desires the Saints to come into more of the knowledge that is necessary.
At a particular time. A prophet is not one that speaks of future events, although that was part of the work that God gave prophets in the Old Testament. You and I are given. Those that are prophets that do the work of a prophet are given the work to deliver a message to the people of God what they need to hear at a particular time, and God raises up individuals to tell.
00:40:11
To deliver a message from his heart of love for the people of God. To build them up.
And then it says exhortation to stir them up, because sometimes become sleepy and complacent in the things of God. And so a prophet can use the Scriptures in a right way and right spirit to stir up the consciences of the brethren. And then it speaks of comfort too.
So a profit can use the word of God to comfort the Saints. And so we have.
These four different gifts used and the principles of how God.
Raises up an assembly here in Antioch in connection with the.
Testimony at that time. And so he uses those principles even in the Old Testament. I'm just going to turn to Isaiah chapter.
Uh, 27 Will read just one verse here in closing.
Verse 12. Let's just read the last part of verse 12. Isaiah chapter 27. Verse 12.
Ye shall be gathered one by one. O ye children of Israel shall come to pass in that day.
That the great trumpet shall be blown and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria. You know, the Lord is going to call the children of Israel the 10 lost tribe. He's going to call them. They're going to come into the land of Israel. They're going to be tested outside the borders of Israel and they'll be gathered to the Lord just one by one. And I just want to impress upon our hearts this this afternoon.
The great work of God in connection with salvation. It's a wonderful thing.
To be saved by the grace of God. It's a wonderful thing to come into the knowledge of the truth and the heavenly truth, that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. And it's a wonderful thing to recognize that we're a part of the Church of God, our responsibilities there, but also that it's Christ Church and that he's building it and that we are.
Individuals and in the sovereignty of God, he's brought us into that blessing. So once again.
The Lord Jesus is the builder of the church. That's Matthew chapter 16. We have a definition of the church.
In Matthew chapter 18 and then the universal aspect of the church is taught to us in different portions of Scripture. But we looked at Ephesians chapter 5 there and then the really the local aspect of the church is brought before us in different passages of Scripture. Then we have the privileges that are ours in connection with working with the Lord and.
Working in harmony.
With those different gifts in connection with the church that we might be built up, the church might be built up and that the Lord might be glorified as a result of the time that we're here. So let's commend ourselves. Our loving God, our Father, we thank the for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee, our God, that thou hast determined that thy Son would have a bride.
And that that bride in this coming day would be displayed.
Beside him, and in this scene that we live in, the assembly is to be.
A picture of that glorious bride going on together.
For thy glory and umm in testimony representing the fact that there is one body.
And two, we thank the blessed Savior that the Church is almost complete. We thank Thee for the privilege of being a part of that.
Heavenly testimony, that heavenly body is soon going to be removed from this scene. We thank Thee that our portion is heavenly in Christ. So we ask you to bless our time together and Thy word as it has been before us. We commend it to thee, our God and our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.